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Sept. 18, 2026 | Trump orders CNN, MS NOW and Politico barred from White House\r\n
May 15, 2026 | Trump calls journalists’ reporting on Iran war ‘treasonous’\r\n
April 6, 2026 | Trump says news outlet must identify source or ‘go to jail’
President Donald Trump and his administration are continuing to take steps in his second term to punish and intimidate news outlets covering them unfavorably. We’re documenting Trump’s direct actions and public statements in this regularly updated report.
Trump’s social media posts denigrating the media are being catalogued separately in our ongoing project, the Trump Anti-Press Social Media Tracker. Read about Trump’s efforts in 2025, and how his appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more here.
This article was first published on May 28, 2026.
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Sept. 18, 2026 | Trump orders CNN, MS NOW and Politico barred from White House\r\n
May 15, 2026 | Trump calls journalists’ reporting on Iran war ‘treasonous’\r\n
April 6, 2026 | Trump says news outlet must identify source or ‘go to jail’
President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 18, 2026, that he was banning multiple news outlets from the White House, asserting it was “a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
In a 3 p.m. post on Truth Social, the platform he owns, Trump wrote that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred, effective immediately, warning that other “Fake News Media Outlets” would face similar bans soon.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” he wrote.
During an event in the Oval Office shortly after the message was posted, Trump was questioned about his justification for the move.
“Because they’re fake news,” he responded. “I get so tired of reading and seeing fake news.”
When another reporter asked why he announced the ban now, Trump said there’s “no reason.”
“It’s really just cumulative stories of the last two years,” he said. “You get sick of it.”
In an article published an hour later, CNN reported that its journalists remained seated in their White House workspace, and there was no indication that Trump’s administration had taken steps to follow through on his announcement.
The New York Times also reported that journalists from the three outlets were continuing to work as usual on the White House grounds.
In a statement posted on social media, CNN said it stands behind its White House team and their reporting.
“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” it said. “Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”
President Donald Trump accused David Sanger — a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times — and others of treason for their coverage of the Iran war during a press gaggle on Air Force One on May 15, 2026.
Trump, who was returning from a series of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, held an informal press gaggle on the plane. In footage posted by Forbes, Sanger is heard asking the president what could be gained by resuming a bombing campaign against Iran.
“I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you, write it incorrectly. You’re a fake guy and guys like you write about it incorrectly,” Trump responds. “We’ve had a total victory except by people like you that don’t write the truth. You know, you should write … I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write. But you and The New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst.”
As another journalist begins to ask a question, Trump turns back to Sanger, addressing him as David, and says that the reporter just writes what his editors tell him to, that he should be ashamed and that the reporting amounts to treason.
Sanger defended his reporting and the importance of the new media generally during an appearance on CNN later that day.
“We all know what this is about: It’s an effort to intimidate news organizations into not doing the reporting,” Sanger told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “The president seems to conflate news he doesn’t want to hear with treason, and that’s not the case.”
In a statement posted to social media, Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander defended the newspaper’s coverage.
“Reporting isn’t treason. It’s foundational to a free press and the work that America’s founders wrote the First Amendment to protect,” he said. “That includes making clear when the claims of government officials and the reality of their actions don’t line up.”
The incident came just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had complained in April to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about leaks concerning the Iran war, and in one meeting passed a stack of news articles to Blanche with a sticky note that read “treason.”
The newspaper also revealed that it and other news outlets were issued subpoenas earlier this year as part of ongoing leak investigations, and that Blanche had vowed to secure such legal orders for the records of journalists working on sensitive national security stories.
President Donald Trump vowed to investigate the source behind a leak concerning the downing of a U.S. fighter jet by Iran during a news conference on April 6, 2026, adding that he would not hesitate to take action against the media outlet that published the information.
The F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran April 3, and while the pilot was quickly rescued, the weapons systems officer could not be immediately located, triggering a frantic two-day search to find him before Iranian forces did. The incidents were covered by multiple national and international newsrooms.
Trump asserted that news reporting on the incident endangered the airman and others, and that the administration would approach the unnamed outlet that had published it as part of ongoing efforts to identify the leaker, The New York Times reported.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it,” Trump said, “and we’re going to say, ‘National security — give it up or go to jail.’ And we know who, and you know who, we’re talking about.”
The White House did not clarify which news outlet the president was referring to, the Times reported.
Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times he was not aware of another instance of a president issuing such a threat.
“During times of armed conflict in a democracy,” Rottman said in a statement, “it is essential that the press be able to gather and report information in the public interest and thus provide an independent check on the official government narrative.”
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President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2026.
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Galeano, director of the Miami-based online news and opinion program Café con Voz, was able to briefly call his wife, Deykell Santamaría, from a police station after his detention and ask her to contact his attorney and notify other journalists, according to the Nicaraguan investigative outlet Divergentes.
Café con Voz later reported that Galeano was being held at the Krome facility, an ICE detention center in Miami, while his immigration proceedings continue. His hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.
After his detention, Santamaría told The Guardian that Galeano said: “If God got me out of Nicaragua, he’ll get me out of here.”
ICE has not publicly explained what prompted his detention. Galeano has an asylum application pending in the United States, filed in 2019 after fleeing political persecution for his journalism in Nicaragua. He also has a work permit and Social Security number, The Guardian reported.
Before leaving Nicaragua, Galeano worked for the newspaper El Nuevo Diario and served as a reporter for the EFE news agency’s Nicaragua bureau between 2004 and 2006, according to the Latin Times. He later directed Café con Voz, a Nicaraguan political news and interview program that aired on the 100% Noticias news service.
Galeano faced threats over his journalism while in Nicaragua. In February 2011, Amnesty International issued an urgent action after an unidentified caller threatened him over reporting for El Nuevo Diario on alleged government misuse of about $20 million. The caller warned Galeano that his family would not see him again if he proceeded with publication.
Galeano ultimately fled Nicaragua in 2018, days after police raided 100% Noticias and authorities issued an arrest order for him, according to multiple news outlets. The raid led to the arrests of the outlet’s director and news director.
From exile in Miami, Galeano rebuilt Café con Voz as an online program and continued reporting on Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and then-Vice President Rosario Murillo (the husband and wife are now co-presidents). He also took up work as a driver to supplement his income.
In February 2023, Nicaragua stripped Galeano and 93 other dissidents of their citizenship and ordered the confiscation of their property. The group included journalists, writers, human rights advocates, religious leaders and opposition figures.
In an interview with Nieman Reports in 2020, Galeano talked about his large online following and the power and importance of social media.
“It’s a way of telling the Nicaraguan public that we haven’t surrendered. That we’re still here and putting up a fight from outside the country,” he said.
Following his detention, Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida warned in a statement that America must know the difference between a criminal and a political exile, and added, “He cannot be sent back into the hands of the people that targeted him.”
A coalition of press freedom groups, including Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, condemned Galeano’s arrest in a letter and also warned of the dangers of deporting him.
“The U.S. government’s targeting and detention of Galeano are a troubling escalation of attacks on journalists and media workers, particularly immigrant journalists, who consistently provide much-needed journalism and civic information for their communities,” the coalition letter said.
An estimated 268 Nicaraguan journalists have fled into exile, according to a January 2026 report from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Many now produce news from Costa Rica, the United States, Spain and other countries while relatives remaining in Nicaragua face surveillance and intimidation.
Florida-based Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano, seen reporting for his online news program Café con Voz. Galeano was detained by federal agents while driving in Orlando on Sept. 14, 2026.
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